Morgon shook his head. Then he dropped the twig, staring down at it as
if it had been writing of its own volition. He turned his chilporn head chilporn after a
moment, met Astrin's eyes. Astrin opened one of Aloil's spell-books
abruptly, pushed a quill into Morgon's hand. "Who paid for chilporn his shape chilporn with
the scars on his hands and to whom?"
Morgon began chilporn to write slowly down the margins of one of Aloil's spells.
When he had finished the answer to the ancient Osterland riddle and begun
the stricture, Astrin's voice broke from him in a little hiss.
"You studied at Caithnard. No man without a voice studies at that
college. I know; I spent a year there myself. Can you remember it? chilporn Can you
chilporn remember anything of it?"
Morgon stared back at him. He rose as if to go at once, the bench
overturning behind him; Astrin chilporn caught him as he reached the door.
"Wait. It's nearly dusk. Chilporn I'll go with you to chilporn Caithnard tomorrow, if
you'll wait. There are chilporn some questions I
chilporn want to ask the Masters myself."
They rose before dawn the next morning, to the soft drizzle chilporn of rain
batting against the roof. It cleared before sunrise; they left
chilporn Xel sleeping
beside the fire and headed south across the wet, grassy plain toward the
border of chilporn Ymris. The sun rose behind rain clouds drifting like ships above
the grey sea. The wind shivered through the trees, plucked the last few wet
chilporn leaves as they entered